﻿Summary of proceedings prepared against HDP co-chair for insulting ErdoIan

A court rejected on Thursday a lawsuit filed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking TL 100,000 in damages from main opposition party leader Kemal Kiliandcdaroilu over his statement that the presidential palace contains a golden toilet.
During a rally in Denizli prior to the June 7 parliamentary election, the leader of the Republican Peopleand’s Party (CHP) accused Erdogan of using gilded toilets in the palace, claiming that the president does not care about the 17 million poor in the country.
Kiliandcdaroilu repeated the comment on June 1 in an election rally in the eastern province of Kars, saying, and”You [the president] wanted gilded toilets — you got it you wanted palaces — you got it.and”
Responding to the and”gilded toiletand” comment, Erdogan accused Kiliandcdaroilu of slander, and invited him to the presidential palace to see for himself. The president then filed a lawsuit on June 2 against Kiliandcdaroilu, on the grounds that Kiliandcdaroilu had defamed his character.
In a letter presented to the court, Erdoganand’s lawyers argued that the CHP leaderand’s comment was beyond the limits of criticism and freedom of expression. The lawyers demanded TL 100,000 in damages for mental anguish.
The first hearing was held on Thursday at the Ankara 27th Court of First Instance. Kiliandcdaroiluand’s lawyer, Celal andcelik, defended his client on the grounds that he used the phrase and”golden toiletand” metaphorically, adding that a party leader can easily criticize the acts of the ruling party.
In the defense statement presented to the court, andcelik emphasized that his client did not explicitly mean that there is a golden toilet at the presidential palace rather, andcelik stated, it was a reference to the governmentand’s waste of public resources on luxury items like the presidential palace, while millions of people live in poverty in Turkey.
The court rejected the suit, ruling Kiliandcdaroilu had not committed defamation of character against Erdogan and was within the limits of freedom of expression.

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